Want successful community? Put on some overalls
I’ve spent several weekends over the last month training with professional planners from around the state as we build our muscle to support the counties, local governments and public that are increasingly being tested by growth and development.
No one in an elected or appointed position in the Lehigh Valley hasn’t felt the pressure as developments zoning appeals and lawsuits rain down upon them. Most officials do what they can to address the onslaught of activity within the confines of the law. Most citizens, equally as exasperated as officials, are well-meaning and want to be part of the growth management solution as well.
Communities often feel unprepared even though the tools for success are right in front of us, through the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code. That state enabling legislation is complicated, onerous, and frankly as dusty as your grandfather’s attic. But, even if the tools in your community are still in their original packaging, in need of sharpening, or the handle is cracked, they are still tools. Use them.
If all my analogies aren’t enough for you, I give you this: In 2022, through the third quarter, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has reviewed 425 subdivision and land development plans, with both counties on pace to exceed the volume seen in recent years.
If plan submissions continue at the same rate as the previous nine months, Lehigh County will conclude 2022 with 302 plans and Northampton County 264 plans. That’s a 29.6% increase for Lehigh County and 17.9% in Northampton over pre-pandemic 2019. Those are just proposals by the private and public sector to adjust property boundaries and build more.
In the first nine months of this year 4,471 housing units have been proposed, along with over 19 million new square feet of nonresidential, largely industrial. That’s more housing units than in all of 2019 and more nonresidential square footage than in 2019, 2020 or 2021.
Civility is important if we intend to navigate the challenges of more. New people and new and expanding businesses equal more. Hootin’ and hollerin’ about it gets you nothing more than a sore throat and high blood pressure.
So, these tools? What do we have?
Every community in Pennsylvania can have a comprehensive plan that outlines the overall goals and objectives for the municipality over a 10-to-20year period. If a community does not have a comprehensive plan, the bi-county FutureLV: The Regional Plan, written and managed by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and adopted by Northampton and Lehigh counties, serves as the local version.
Communities can partner up to write and enact joint plans, and 38 out of 62 have. One of the biggest benefits of multi-municipal comprehensive planning is that communities can share different land uses by amending their zoning and official map once the document is adopted.
Zoning tells us what a community is willing to allow, at what locations, scale and intensity on each property in town. And the state law requires all communities to zone for every possible use on at least two properties somewhere in each municipality.
Official maps operate like instructions as they outline where streets, railways, transit rights-of-way, watercourses, floodways and flood control basins, public facilities buildings, parks, playgrounds and open space reservations are intended to go. Similar to zoning ordinances they have a lot of power but, are too often not mapped. In fact, only 15 out of 62 Lehigh Valley communities have adopted an official map.
Throw in the subdivision and land development ordinance that details the process and requirements for individual proposals and their impacts, and you have the most basic and functional set of tools needed to manage growth and development.
Your toolkit now includes a comprehensive plan, zoning code, official map, and a subdivision and land development ordinance.
I pose this scenario: You live in Community Awesome, a beautiful mix of farms and clusters of homes and businesses. Everyone receives their water from on-lot wells and manages their sewer on-site. Over the last decade or so you’ve noticed that there are more residential neighborhoods being built around you, more lots being carved out of farmlands, more businesses along the two-lane main road, and traffic has increased to the point you are leaving your house earlier and earlier to drop the kids off at school and still make it to work on time. You ask yourself how did this happen?
Well, it’s simple — development. Some good and some not so much. Either way, it’s there and pending a demolition permit, it’s not going away.
It’s likely that Community Awesome doesn’t have an up-to-date comprehensive plan, better yet, a multi-municipal one, a modern zoning code or development regulations, and worse yet, no one has even heard of an official map.
Community Awesome has become a hodgepodge, willy-nilly patchwork of stuff with too much traffic, polluted wells, undersized parks and overstuffed schools. It’s a recipe for failure.
The state enables the use of a variety of tools, some of them I didn’t even list (hint, traffic impact fees) that allows your local government to build its muscle. But, you have to support your local officials in their quest to help keep Community Awesome full of rainbows and unicorns. That means being kind, volunteering to sit on your local Planning Commission or Zoning Hearing Board, and not waiting until a developer proposes a village worth of warehouses to become involved. You too must be the change.
Thomas Edison said that “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Well in Community Awesome overalls are back in style and the best accessory is a toolbox with the latest comprehensive plan, a calibrated zoning code, a sharpened subdivision and land development ordinance and an official map so you never get lost.